A new robotic ‘arm’, which works safely alongside humans, is working its way into the food processing industry. The Australian distributor, Auto Control Systems is working with a company packing strawberry punnets into larger boxes at a strawberry farm. Its use could extend to the Western Australian and Northern Territory ‘food bowl’ growing areas, reducing labour costs and freeing employees from boring, repetitive work.
“We’re working on trials, and have definitely had a couple of enquiries from the fresh fruit industry,” says Perth based Auto Control Systems Sales and Marketing Manager, Rob Nunn. “The vision control, and torque control that can be integrated with the Universal Robot means that the machine is able to be personalized for a number of different products.” Eggs are another successful trial product, but the team at Auto Control Systems have also confirmed that commodities such as broccoli, cauliflower, or other ‘odd shaped’ produce can be picked up using the vision system that can be interfaced with the Robot.
“The vision system can determine what sort of object it is, what shape it is, how big it is and how it should be picked up,” adds Mr Nunn. “There is no off the shelf offering with this, so it can be suited to any number of applications. Return on investment is also pretty quick, from as little as a few months up to around two years.”
The Universal Robot can also operate in the harsh weather conditions which often deter human workers, according to Mr Nunn. “The device has been tested and works in temperatures as hot as 50 degrees Celsius. Most conditions found in Australia are really going to affect the Robot's performance.”
Auto Control Systems is the Australian distributor for Universal Robots, which is manufactured in Denmark.
